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Liftopia Now Offering Tickets for Lift-Served Mountain Biking

For the first time, Liftopia, the largest online marketplace for reduced-price lift tickets, has begun to offer lift tickets for mountain biking at resorts across North America. It makes perfect sense, since the sport has been growing in popularity in recent years thanks to expanding terrain, green and blue cruisers for riders of all ages and levels. Many of the top lift-served bike resorts are working with Liftopia for this new initiative, including Mountain Creek (NJ), Mammoth Mountain (CA), Schweitzer Mountain (ID), Grand Targhee (WY), Plattekill Mountain (NY), Sunday River (ME), and Waterville Valley (NH). To coincide with the launch, Liftopia is partnering with Teton Gravity Research, TheFeed.com, and Specialized Bicycle Components to offer sweepstakes and giveaways throughout the season, including a Specialized Enduro trail bike (retails at $3,400) and $500 in gift credit from Liftopia. 

 

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Rafting the Rogue River, Oregon

A four-hour drive south of Portland or a 6-hour jaunt north of San Francisco is the remote Rogue River in southern Oregon. Cutting through dense forests of pine and scrub oak, the Rogue is definitely off-the-beaten-track, a place where writer Zane Grey could think in peace and put his pen to the paper. So it’s no surprise that the Rogue become one of the first rivers to come under federal protection when 84 miles were designated a Wild and Scenic River in 1968. On a weekend trip this summer with Rogue Wilderness Adventures, you’ll raft a 34-mile chunk of the Rogue, camping one night and spending the next night at a historic lodge. An added bonus is that the gourmet dinners are paired with some of Oregon’s best pinot noirs. Price of the 3-day guided jaunt is $899 per person.
 

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The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Dripping Sap

Maria von Trapp, the woman who inspired The Sound of Music, is no longer with us, but Trapp Family Lodge continues to flourish thanks to one of the finest cross-country networks in the northeast, comfy lodging perched on a hillside in Stowe, Vermont, the launch of their microbrewery, and a restaurant that serves a tasty wiener schnitzel. Mid to late March, during the heart of the maple sugaring season, is my favorite time of year to visit Trapps. When it comes to sugaring, the family does it the old fashion way, picking up the sap in buckets with a horse-drawn sleigh or via cross-country skis and delivering it to the sugarhouse to boil off the water and create Vermont’s “liquid gold.” The 1200 taps produce 300 gallons of syrup annually and the season lasts from mid-March until mid-April. Join in on the fun each Saturday, when you can cross-country ski, snowshoe, or grab that horse-drawn sleigh to the sugarhouse for a traditional Sugar-on-Snow party. The hot syrup is tossed on the white snow to create a chewy maple taffy, served with donuts and dill pickles. If you’re in the area tomorrow, March 13, Trapp Family Lodge will be offering a Maple Sugar Snowshoe Tour from 2 to 3:30 pm. Enjoy a 1.5-mile snowshoe through the woods, then learn about the process of making maple syrup at their sugarhouse. 

 
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A Visit to Quebec City’s Ice Hotel

On my last day in Quebec, I took a tour of the only ice hotel in North America. Now in its 13th incarnation, the Hotel de Glace features 44 rooms and suites, a chapel that hosts around 20 weddings each winter, and a bar with incredible acoustics that was blasting a Led Zeppelin tune when I strolled in. It took more than 50 people some 4 to 6 weeks to build the structure, which opened on January 5 and will close on March 24th. Rooms are unheated. You warm up in an outdoor Jacuzzi and then go straight under the blankets for the night. I blew off that option, choosing instead to have a drink of vodka and cider served in an ice flute. Then I took a taxi back to the warm confines of my Hilton room. 
 
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Biking Reykjavik

With its magical mix of volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, geysers, rugged coastline, green meadows, and geothermal spas like the acclaimed Blue Lagoon, it’s no wonder that Iceland has become a popular destination for our clientele. It’s also an easy 5-hour flight from the East Coast and a free stopover on Icelandair to other European destinations like Stockholm, Copenhagen, or Barcelona. So there’s no excuse not to check it out. I just spent a week in the country and had a great time. My first outing was a morning bike ride with Reykjavik Bike Tours to get an overview of the city where two-thirds of the Iceland’s population of 330,000 resides. 

 
We biked past one of Reykjavik’s signature buildings, the recently built Harpa Concert Hall, a gleaming glass building that reflects both sky and water. Then we cruised into the heart of the city on cobblestone streets to one of the most historic neighborhoods, simply called 101. At the Parliament Building, we learned about Iceland’s 2008 bankruptcy and their historic vote not to pay off their debt to the UK. “Instead of cash, we gave them ash,” said our guide, referring to the volcanic ash disruption of international flights in 2010. We stopped at one of the 120 outdoor pools in the city, open year-round and heated by the abundant thermal energy. We also biked past Bjork’s modest home and pedaled through the University of Iceland’s campus, home to 17,000 students, 70% of whom are women (note to son: this is the school where you want to spend your semester abroad). 
 
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Ciclismo Classico Bike Tour to Sardinia Led by Chef Jody Adams

Ciclismo Classico, the Italian biking specialist, has just announced that James Beard Award-winning chef, Jody Adams, will host a tour to Sardinia this fall. Adams, owner of the popular Rialto and Trade restaurants in Boston, will be heading to an Italian island known for its innovative cuisine. “Chef Adams will delight guests palates with handmade pastas, Seada cake, Montiferru, local cheeses, cured meats and regional wines,” says Ciclismo Classico founder Lauren Hefferon.
 
The tour begins in Tresnuraghes and then cross the very center of the island through areas still untouched by tourism. From here, riders will discover the stunning coast in Cabras with its lagoons and flamingos, and explore the long sandy beaches of the Sinis peninsula. Visits to old mining towns, the ancient Phoenician and Roman cities of Tharros and Nora, and the winding coastal road to Pula highlight the weeklong trip. The itinerary includes several informal cooking demonstrations with Chef Adams where guests can participate in the action and learn a few tips from the master chef. A cheese-making demonstration with local shepherds, and a special dinner prepared by Adams at Villa Asfodeli are also included in this culinary adventure. Dates are September 30-October 6, 2014, and cost is $5395 per person, all-inclusive. 
 
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Holiday Cheer in Toronto—The City’s Architectural Boom

Over the past five years, Toronto has enjoyed an architectural renaissance, with Daniel Libeskind’s bold addition to the block-long stone and brick Royal Ontario Museum, Frank Gehry’s tasteful redesign of the Art Gallery of Ontario, and hometown favorite, Jack Diamond’s acoustically perfect opera house, the Four Seasons Centre. Outside the ROM, shards of aluminum and ribbons of glass jut out onto the sidewalk with knife-like precision, without care or need for right angles. Libeskind’s whimsy lends itself well to the child-like intrigue that one can’t help but muster when visiting the mind-boggling collection of wares inside the ROM. More than a mere natural history museum with requisite brontosaurus skeleton, the ROM has a vast collection of gems and treasures from ancient Egypt, Greece, and China. On display until January 6, 2013, is the exhibition “Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana.” The show displays bizarre dinosaurs, virtually unknown to North Americans, before they were discovered in South American and Africa. 
 
Highlights of Frank Gehry’s new addition at the Art Gallery of Ontario include a stairwell that extends outside the blue titanium back wall to reward guests with vistas over Grange Park. And Galleria Italia on the second floor, a large lounge where ribs of soft Douglas fir curve upward, as if you’ve just entered the inverted hull of a ship. A spacious gallery devoted to the sculptures of Henry Moore and landscapes by the Group of Seven, highly regarded Canadian painters from the 1920s, are a small sampling of the impressive works found at the AGO. But I’ll be headed there this morning to view the latest blockbuster exhibition, “Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics, and Painting.” This rare showcase of 155 works by and about the artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera was created primarily from the collection of Mexico’s Museo Dolores Olmeda. It’s only on view through January 20, 2013, so find a way to get to Toronto soon. 
 
 
 

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